INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION LOGOS: A SEMIOTIC
PRESPECTIVE
PUBLICATION ARTICLE
Submitted as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Getting Bachelor Degree of Education
in English
by:
FAJAR SETIADI
A 320 090 300
FACULTY OF TEACHING TRAINING AND EDUCATION MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY OF SURAKARTA
2016
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INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION LOGOS: A SEMIOTIC PERSPECTIVE
Abstracts
Organizations under United Nation have their own logo as their identities. The objectives of this research are to describe the events and to find the meanings presented by the International Organization Logos. The data are the International Organization Logos which are collected from International Organization Logos under UN official website as many as 26 pictures. In collecting the data, the researcher ccollects the International Organization Logos from the UN Organization website and cclassify the logos based on its containing of world events issues. The theories used are the Pierce theory and Saussure theory. The type of the research is qualitative interpretative. In analyzing the data, the researcher aanalyses the meaning of the index used to represent the logos by using Peirce’s theory then define the relation between the events and the index used on the logos by applying the Saussure’s theory by using signifier and signified to identify the meaning of the index. This research shows that (1) The signifier is the visual shape of the logo and signified is the symbol of the picture as the representation of its event. The event of its agencies usually represented with the picture who stands in the midlle or its cleared with the bold and capital acronyim of the agency’s name. (2) the meaning of International Organization Logos it showed with the representment as the visual shape also, interpretant the interpretation of each picture within the logo and object is the purpose or the field of the organization.
Keywords: Semiotics, International Organization Logos, Pierce and Saussure theory
Abstraksi
Organisasi PBB mempunyai logo mereka sendiri sebagai identitas. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mendeskriipsikan lingkup gerak dan untuk arti pada logo internasioanl tersebut. Data pada penelitian ini adalah logo internasional yang dikumpulkan dari website logo organisasi internasional PBB sebanyak 26 gambar. Dalam pengumpulan data, peneliti mengumpulkan logo organisasi internasional dan website organisasi PBB dan mengklasifikasi logo tersebut berdasarkan bidang dan masalahnya. Metode pada penelitian ini adalah kualitatif interpretatif. Dalam metode analisis data, terdapat analisa arti dari index yang digunakan untuk menartikan logo dengan menggunakan teori Pierce kemudian mendefinisikan hubungan antara bidang dan index yang ada pada logo tersebut dengan mengaplikasikan teori saussure dengan menggunakan signifier dan signified untk mengidentifikasikan arti dari index tersebut. Penelitian inin menunjukkan bahwa 1) isignifier merupakan bentuk visual dari logo dan signified merupakan simbol dari gambar sebagai representasi dari bidang geraknya. Bidang dan peristiwanya pada logo tersebut biasanya digambarkan dengan gambar yang berada ditengah logo yang ditegaskan dengan gambar tebal dan kapital pada akronim nama logo tersebut. 2) arti dari logo organisasi internasioanal ditunjukkan pada representmen sebagai bentuk visualnya, interpretant interpretasi dari masing-masing gambar dalam logo dan object yang merupakan tujuan atau wilayah dari organisasi tersebut.
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1. Introduction
The greatest international organization in the world is United Nation. As
the researcher knows there are more than 300 international organizations in the
world. However, United Nation is the largest and the most popular. United
Nation has big contribution to take stabilization and security in the world. United
Nation is very common in daily activity. It is always seen on TV, newspaper,
magazine, internet, etc. For example, the news about contribution UNESCO in
rebuilding Borobudur temple. The contribution is not only in cultural sector but
United Nation also involved in many contributions such as social, educational,
safety, economic, fields. Indonesia also keeps active as the member of United
Nation.
The logo in organization under United Nation is interesting to analyze.
Every organization has its own logo as their identity. The logo is unique because
it has one important key, where it contains great philosophy and purpose. The
logo of United Nation only used one color (blue) and the background is white.
The picture consists of world map, olive three and the net. This becomes a
specific color of United Nation logo.
The international organization logo appeared on 7 December 1946. It has
a plain white background, blue on the picture and united nation words. The
design is "a map of the world representing an azimuth equidistant projection
center on the North Pole (it means the picture of the map taken from the top of
the globe of North Pole). This is the symbol of the wide range of United Nation
in giving supervision around the world. Inscribed in a wreath consisting of
crossed conventionalized branches of the olive tree, it stand as a symbol of peace,
where the United Nation will give everything to the country around the world the
protection to get their peace". The United Natio Logo symbolizes an achieving its
main purpose, peace and security.
Logo is a kind of image or picture and can be categorized as sign. “Sign
takes the form of words, images, sounds, odours, flavors, acts, or objects. Such
things have no intrinsic meaning and become sign only when we invest them
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out the relation of non language sign in the logos which support the construction
of the discourse.
The objectives of this research are to describe the events and to find the
meanings presented by the International Organization Logos.
The first previous study was done by student of English Department of
Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta, Safariyani (2004) entitled Semiotics Analysis of Dominant Ideology ant the Structural Elements Related to Watch Advertisement Poster. The second research was done by Nugroho (2008), an English Department student of Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta which
analyzes the Semiotics Principle to Figure Out the Relation Between the Titles and the Picture Designed in The Islamic Cd’s Cover. The third research was done by Ismail. (2012), Barclays premier league club’slogos lead to the identity of the event they represent and the meanings of Barclays premier league club’s logos.
The last research was done by Nagri (2012) with the researcher entitled A Semiotic Analysis Of Google Search Engine Logos. Different from those researches above, the researcher takes International Organization Logos as the
object of the study and the similarity of those researchers is the researcher and
them using semiotics approach in their research.
Eco (in Chandler, 2002: 2) confirms that “semiotics is concerned with
everything that can be taken as a sign”. Semiotics involves the study not only of
what people refer to as “signs” in everyday speech, but of anything which “stands
for” something else. In a semiotics sense, signs take the form of words, images,
sounds, gestures and objects. Contemporary semioticians study signs not in
isolation but as part of semiotics “sign systems” (such as a medium or genre).
They study how meanings are made and how reality is represented.
Peirce‟s definition about sign above shows that sign constructed by three
points:
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Saussure (1857-1913) is a Switzerland linguist who studied the life of
signs in society. His book, Course in General Linguistics has made him become the undisputed founder of modern linguistics (Sobur, 2004: 43). The core of
Saussure‟s contribution to semiotics known as semiology, the name for his project for a general theory of sign systems (Nöth, 1990: 57). The Saussure‟s
statement above shows that he has different view with Peirce, Saussure put his
basic thinking about sign trough to the psychological point of view that the sign
is a project of psychological work appears as the behavior attitude. Saussure
elaborated his sign model only in order to analyze the “nature of linguistics sign”. Nöth (1990: 59) states that “the fundamental aspects of Saussure‟s theory of the
signs are its bilateral structure, its mentalistic conception, the exclusion of
reference, and the structural conception of meaning”. Saussure offered a „dyadic‟
or two-part model of the sign. He defined a sign as being composed of:
1.1a „signifier‟ (signifiant) - the form which the sign takes; and 1.2The „signified‟ (signifie) - the concept it represents.
The relationship between the signifier and the signified is referred to as
„signification‟, and this is represented in the Saussurean diagram by the arrows.
The horizontal broken line marking the two elements of the sign is referred to as
„the bar‟ (Chandler, 2007: 17).
Jakobson (October 11, 1896 – July 18, 1982) was a Russian thinker who became one of the most influential linguists of the century. Moreover, he also claimed as one of the pioneer in linguistics structuralism approach. He
distinguishes six communication functions, each associated with a dimension of
the communication process. One of the function are always stick out without
forget about the another function (Sudaryanto, 1990:12 in Sobur, 2004: 69).
1.1Referential function as a contextual information
1.2Emotive function as self expression
1.3Connotative function as a vocative or imperative addressing of receiver
1.4Metalingual function that explain the code which is used
1.5Phatic functions to check, form, and maintain the contact between
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1.6Poetic to coding the massage.
Barthes (November 12, 1915- March 25, 1980) was born in Cherbourg
and growth in Bayonne, French. He also known as the structural thinker who
focuses to applicate the Saussure‟s model of linguistic an semiology (Sobur:
2004:63). He also published a series of examining modern essay myths and the
process of their creation in his book Mythologies. One of the most important
areas that he grabbed in his study is the reader‟s rule, where the reader needs to
be active to understand the sign. He calls his attention as secondary system which late named as connotative. He also introduced the primary system that known as denotative system (Sobur, 2004:68).
Nöth (1990: 59) has raised a statement that some proposals for a typology
of signs are an integral part of the semiotics theory of their author like follows:
1.1Symbol
Pierce and Saussure used term ‘symbol’ differently from each other. Saussure avoided referring to linguistic sign as „symbol‟, since the ordinary
everyday use of this term refers to examples such as pair of scales (signifying
justice), and he stated that such sign are never wholly arbitrary. They show at
least a vestige of natural connection between the signifier and the signified
(Saussure, 1983: 68 in Chandler, 2002: 38).
1.2Icon
Peirce gave various definitions of the icon which focus on different
criteria valid for a large class of semiotics phenomena. In Peirce universal
categorical system, the icon belongs to the category of firstness, in contrast to
the index and symbol, which belong to secondness, and thirdness. The
firstness is the absolute present and doesn‟t represent anything else except itself (Nöth, 1990: 121). Sobur (2004: 158) states that icon is physical things
that imitate what it represents.
1.3Index
Index is defined as sign which comes associatively as a result from the
existence of fixed characteristic relation of the reference (Sobur, 2004: 160).
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physical relation, existential, or causal between the representamen and its
object. For example, thunder is an index that there will be going to come a
storm. Index can be divided into:
1.3.1 Material, for example, smoke is index from fire.
1.3.2 Natural, for example, flood is index from cat and dog rain.
1.3.3 Physical, for example, pregnant is index from sexual relationship.
1.3.4 Sound, for example, the bell rang is index from the coming of guest.
2. Research Method
The type of the research of this study is interpretative qualitative
research. The method focuses on sign and text as the object of study as well as
on how the researcher interprets and understands the decoding beyond the sign
and the text (Pilliang, 2003: 270). The object of this research is the semiotics
meaning symbolized in International Organization Logos. The data is the
International Organization Logos which are collected from International
Organization Logos under UN official website as many as 26 pictures. In
analyzing the data there are analyzing the meaning of the index used to
represent the logos by using Peirce‟s theory then define the relation between the events and the index used on the logos by applying the Saussure‟s theory by
using signifier and signified to identify the meaning of the index
3. Research Finding
This chapter presents research finding and discussion of the finding.
3.1The Event Presented by the International Organization Logos.
3.1.1UNICEF
(01/Unicef/Identity)
3.1.1.1 Signifier‟ Signifier‟ (signifiant) - the form which the sign takes. The signifier on the logo consists; the word UNICEF,
two branches of the olive tree, the globe, pictured form the
mother her baby in the middle with the net.
3.1.1.2The „signified‟ (signifie) - the concept it represents. The logo of UNICEF showed with the dominant picture in the
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and carrying the baby. This becomes and identity that shows
the foundation activity to taking care of the children. This is
their focus that cannot be change, because the picture of
mother and children has showed their field automatically.
This is the symbol of protection among children. While the
globe that circle the picture of mother and her baby shows
the area of the foundation (around the world). So, those
pictures has shown the identity of UNICEF Logo that work
as the children protection.
3.2The Meaning of International Organization Logos
3.2.1UNICEF
(17/Unicef/Meaning)
3.2.1.1Representment
Based on the meaning of Unicef itself, it means that this
is the international fund or foundation that works to protect
the children‟s right. While the meaning of the UNICEF logo
identified into two, as the representmen and as the
interpretant. As the representamen the unicef symbol
pictured with white color and blue color as a background. It
was white with the symbol centered (quite small) in deep
blue. The symbol is like the UN symbol with the map
replaced by silhouette of a mother holding her children.
Based on its sector as children emergency found the symbol
appearance uses the picture of mother holding her children.
While the net (the globe) surround the picture of mother and
children represent the found that work all around the world.
The branches of the olive tree show that unicef is the fund
that give peace under care and protection.
3.2.1.2Interpretant,
The symbol of unicef is very simple. Common people
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children‟s right from its picture. From its picture, mother
holding a children and the net of the globe and also the
branches of the olive tree its represent the entire meaning of
its symbol. It is also never far from the United Nation itself
where the difference is only the picture within the net of the
globe. Unicef pictured with mother holding a children, while
United Nation is the map around the world.
3.2.1.3Object
Unicef is United nations international childrens’
emergency fund. Based on the meaning of unicef itself, it means that this is the international fund or foundation that
works to protect the children‟s right.
Table 4.2. table frequency of United Nation logos lead to the identity of the event they represent.
3 The animal Human Right Council,
WHO
Based on the above table it can be found that the nomber of logos that is used
based on the use globe image as part of United Nation member consists of 3 data
or about 18,7%, while the logo are used based on the use olive branch image as
part of United Nation member consists of 4 data or about 25%, the logo are used
based on the use of human logo consists of 2 data or about 12,5%, the logo with
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3 data or about 18,5% and the logo are used the image wheat consists of 2 data or
about 12,5%.
Table 4.3. table frequency of the meaning Organisation International logos under United Nation.
No Meaning of the logos Data Member Percent
1 The protection UNIDO, UNHCHR, IMF,
UNICEF, WMO
5 31,8%
2 The welfare WHO, FAO, WFP 3 18,2%
3 The unity UNEP,United Nation, ILO,
The Human Right Concil
4 25%
4 The controler energy IAEA,UNFPA 2 12,5%
5 The safety ICAO, IMO 2 12,5%
Total 16 100%
Based on the above table it can be found that the nomber of logos that
meaning used based on the protection as part of United Nation member consists
of 5 data or about 31,8%, while the meaning are used based on the use walfare as
part of United Nation member consists of 3 data or about 18,2%, the meaning
logos are used based on the use of unity consists of 4 data or about 25%, the
meaning logos with controler energy consists of 2 data or about 12,5%, and the
meaning logos with safety consists of 2 data or about 12,5%.
There were also similarity and difference among this research with the
previous research. This research was used two theories to analyzed the symbol,
Saussure and Peirce‟s. Saussure‟s theory to find out the the Event Presentation in
a form of signified and signifier, while Pierce‟s theory used to find out the
meaning of International Organization Logos. So there was different with the
previous research where Safariyani (2004) research was used Charles and
Ferdinant‟s theory. The focus of her research was also different, where she
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result of her study shows that most of the watch advertisement posters
constructed by the image of a man, women, and watch, this is alsp different with
the result of this study, where the event of its agency usually pictured with the
picture who stand in the midlle or it sometimes cleared with the bold and capital
acronyim of the agency‟s name. While the meaning on each logo also represent
the picture and its event. The similarity with this research is only on the object of
the study where both used semiotic analysis to analyzed the symbol.
4. Conclusion
Each logo of United Nation members has their own specification and usually
the event presented by the international organization logos. The signifier is the
visual shape of the logo and signified is the symbol of the picture as the
representation of its event. As the symbol of United Nation members each logo
involve similar picture of olive branch as the symbol of care and protection. The
symbol of the globe and the map also sometimes appear in a certain logo such as
Unicef, The Human Rights Council, IMF, and WHO. Beside that the color also
shows that the organization as the member of United Nation. The event of its
agency usually pictured with the picture who stand in the midlle or it cleared
with the bold and capital acronyim of the agency‟s name.
While the meaning of International Organization Logos showed with the
representment as the visual shape also, interpretant the interpretation of each
picture within the logo and object is the purpose or the field of the organization.
The interpretation sometimes appears by people who want to interpret their own
imagination about the logo and its field, so it is sometimes the interpretation
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